Ghost Ship
by Supermoi
Summary: When the Decepticon Ship Nemesis receive a weird distress signal from an unknown source, they thought they had found a possible new energon source but... WHat they will discovers will send them into a nightmare they didn't foresee. Rated M for HORROR/GORE
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Transformers, they're owned by Hasbro/Takara. I'm only playing with them!

**A/N:** This will be an Halloween-based story. Not a one-shot but not more then 5-6 chapters so I can finish before Halloween. There will be gore, blood and overall scare. No slash in this one. For reference, I did another last year Called Cybertron's Night of the Living Dead, based on the movie of the (almost) same name... SO you can know my writing style a bit when it comes to horror!

**Story: **When the Decepticon Ship Nemesis receive a weird distress signal from an unknown source, they thought they had found a possible new energon source but... WHat they will discovers will send them into a nightmare they didn't foresee.

**Rating: **NC-1-/M for hardcore horror, gore and language.

**GHOST SHIP**

**by**

**Supermoi**

_Prologue, 3 million years ago, Great War Era_

"Captain Hard Drive! I got a signal o our scopes! Something just came out of nowhere in front of us! It's a shitp, but it looks like nothing I ever saw before!"

The quietness of the Bridge of the Autobot exploration ship Primus's Hand was shattered by that sudden call from the Sensor's Officer, and the Captain turned on his seat in the center of the large bridge to shot the young Autobot a sharp look.

"Report! Can you give me a scan of this ship? Out it on visual on the main screen!"

"Aye Sir!"

Burnout obeyed swiftly and his digits were thumping on the commands at a high speed, but with great efficiency. A few moments later the main screen came to life and on it appeared the image of the ship that just appeared out of nowhere. And everyone on the bridge stared in awe for a few klicks.

This looks like nothing they ever saw...

By its size only it was dwarfing the Autobot ship, and the Primus's Hand was the largest Autobot's exploration Ship of this era. It was probably more than fifty kilometers in length and a little more than 20 in height, and it was almost as wide. But that wasn't what was the most shocking. The ship was completely black, more like the negative image of a ship in the background of space and stars then an actual structure... As if it was absorbing all lights that happens to hit it, and never reflecting it again, like any 'normal' alloy would. And there was... a coldness, something very off, about this ship as well. Everyone had felt it already, in their circuits. This was not a 'normal' ship at all... And it was emanating a very dark, very... 'evil' for lack of better adjective, aura.

The captain was the first to shake the shock off and he said sharply, snapping everyne else out of shock.

"Every bot at their battle stations, Yellow Alert!" He opened the ship's internal comlink as the lights on the bridge turned to amber and the alarm went off in every parts of the large ship. They had scientists on boards, even families, as it was a long-term expeditions that was set to last 6 Vorns. They were back home in one Vorns and they had been on their way back, but still quite a while away from Cybertron. "All deck, we are on Yellow Alert! The civilians stays on their quarters until resuming of normal activity! Everyone else, battle stations! that is all!"

He then turned his eyes back to the screen when he caught a movement and the sensor Officer said in a slightly nervous tune. "Sir, it had launched a small shuttle or something similar towards out position! Contact in 5 Klicks!"

Burnout was a young bot barely out of the Cybertron's Space Academy when he signed up for this mission, The young bot had thought then travel was good for him and this was his opportunity to discovers new things and new civilizations! He had always been a curious one... He was cut out in his thoughts by Amberseed, their science officer, and the gold and black femme sounded slightly afraid, maybe even a bit of panicked. If that cold-tempered, cool femme was afraid, this wasn't a good sign at all... SHe hadn't even turn away from her station to call out, her tune urgent.

"Sir! We are being probed! A wide-scale, very powerful scan, it is even scanning our logs and all of our computerized datas about the last 5 years of explorations! Everything! And I can't b lock it, that's energy is... of unknown nature!"

"The probe's closing on us Sir! Contact in ten nanoklicks!"

"Everyone, hold tight!"

Hard Drive had barely time to hold on himself before the shock hit them, and he was sent flying from his seat then hit the main console hard, feeling something break in his lower midsection. He could hear shouts and groans and thuds from all over the bridge and then... Hell was let loose.

The lights went totally out and there was silence for a long moment.

"Is everyone alright?" He called and received positive answer from all around the bridge. "Alright, let's get the lights back on before..."

He was cut mid-sentence by a spark-wrenching screech, something inhumane and hellish... Like a banshee from the pits or something like that, and then another, and another, until there was a pit-like cacophony in the entire ship, and then it stopped as suddenly as it begun. The first thing to break the deafening silence that followed were some hard breathing and then the terrifyed, tiny voice of Burnout.

"What was that?..."

He never got an answer. There was a scream from the Science console, Amberseed's scream, and the scream was shortly cut off by an horrifying, disgusting ripping sounds. Hard Drive was hit on the side of the head by something hard but warm... And dripping a warm liquid... Blindly he pawed around to find what it was, dreading it at the same time. His servos finally touched a smooth surface, and this felt like... dermaplating... and... were those lips? And a noceplate... And... Whe he tried to feel something under that head he felt nothing... but wires dangling from the torn appendage, the fresh wound still dripping energon blood and components.

Amberseed's head... but not the rest of her body... ripped off her shoulders with tremendous strenght...

He heard a scream and similar sounds all around him now, someone else let out a pained gasp and then screamed bloody murder when that... disgusting ripping sound was heard again. Hard Drive crawled to the closest station, the Sensors, and he could heard pained gasps and panting from where Burnout was... And he knew the young bot was doomed when he finally reached him. There was a flash of light, brief but long enough for him to see the carnage. Burnout's lower body was crushed beyond recognition, and both his arms ripped off.

The young bot gave his superior a pleading look, begging him to end him now, before... something came out of the darkness behind him and he was like... wrench away from his grip with so much strength that the leg he had been holding - what was left of it - was ripped from the body and there were more crunching and ripping sounds before silence fell again.

"BURNOUT! NOOOOO!"

He collapsed forward and let go of the now lifeless appendage with disgust, like he had been burned, and then he managed to get up, and crawl to the elevator on the back. By some miracle it was still working and he was asked for a destination. He chose one randomly.

"Deck 6! Living quarters!"

Soon the elevator stopped and the door opened. In that section, the red emergency lights were still online and he could see barely a few feet in front of him, but it was giving the place a very... Pit-like feel. He hadn't took three steps inside that he felt his pedes bump on something, and if he would've had organic skin, he would've had goosebumps by now... He heard a gurgling sounds at his feet and something grabbed his ankle. He slowly, very slowly looked down... Only to istinctively kick the poor mech that was now looking at him with pleading optics, one barely functioning...

But the worst was...

His lower mandible was gone, ripped off, and his glossa dangling freely from the hole,hence the gurgling sounds he was making. And his lower body from the waist down... apparently ripped off leaving dangling wires and robotic organs showing. He crawled on his hands towards him and the poor Captain, feeling his sanity dwindle and threaten to break, lift his laser gun and shoot the poor thing in the head, ending his agony.

He ran.

He ran for a long time, met with horrors like the ones on the bridge and the other that greet him when he came out of the elevator at every turns. He was going mad, he just knew it... And those damn Banshee screeching that would ring every now and then! Those were even worst then the horrible carnage, piercing his very spark to the core, threatening to send him into the pit at every seconds. And maybe this was where he was already... Where they all were! Maybe they were sucked up by a wormhole unknowingly and ended up in Hell!

And Unicron was not far from here... He could almost feel that heavy, overwhelming evil all around him... What else could it be? He must have ended up in hell, and this parody of his ship was his eternal torment. He took another turn and almost toppled over, colliding with someone else that was running in the opposite direction. He was ready to shoot whatever had jumped him but... stopped his movement when he saw a young femme at his pedes, covered in energon blood and shaking like a leaf. She looked unharmed, or so he thought...

"Miss, are you alright? You can't stay here! I'm trying to get to the shuttle bay and get the hell out of here... Come with me!"

SHe was sobbing and didn't answered. He put a hand on her shoulder and she suddenly looked up at him, making him jump back in sudden shock. Both her optics were missing, torn off, and thick blackish energon blood was coagulated on her cheek like permanent tears of blood. SHe opened her mouth and keened in a way that made his circuits tingle in terror. It sounded so deeply desperate and agonized! She was still crouched and he couldn't see all of her body, including her midsection.

"My sparkling... They took my sparkling... They devoured my sparkling!"

Suddenly she screamed and uncurled from her crouched position and Hard Drive couldn't help but scream in horror as well. She had been cut open from the chest to the crotch! ANd where her midsection could've been was a ripped, torn hole where... He understood then and shuddered, falling to his knees and purging right there and then.

She had been carrying... And her sparkling was torn from her body after she had been cut open like a energon melon. And the sparkling was gone... Who knows where. probably in hell as it was where they all were now.

In hell... Unicron's domain, the Pits of Inferno. Where else could they be?

Hard Drive screamed and his scream resonated through the hellhole that his prideful, magnificent ship had now become.

No one ever heard of the Primus's Hand ever again, but there were tales of a Ghost Ship haunting the sector of space where he was last seen. Some says that, if you ever encounter this ship, you will meet an untimely end. Some says that it has now become a portal to the Pits of Inferno... Like all of those deep space tales, maybe does it contains a part of truth. SO much is yet unknown in the dark depth of space, and so much may be a danger for us all. WHat awaits us travellers in the deepest corners of the wide, dark and full of mystery that is space?

Do we really want to know? Do we really NEED to know? SOme says we could find Heaven there, or wonders beyong our wildest beliefs, but some says that we will more likely finds horrors and threats of unknown nature that will be the ends of us all.

ANd...

Some says that it is the Inferno that awaits us out there.

_-TBC-_


	2. Chapter 1: The ship

_Chapter 1: The ship..._

Bridge of the Nemesis, present time

Bored! He was bored out of his processor!

Starscream made his seat swirl around for the hundredth time, then gave those damn sensor arrays a death glare. He was the Air Commander and Second in Command! Such tasks were beneath him! Monitor duty was the pit, and Megatron had made him do it only to spite him! The seeker leaned back on the seat, slumping tiredly and yawning widely. Night cycle shift was even worst... At least during the day cycles there were other bots around to observe and bitch with! Even Megatron himself, and bitching Megatron was Starscream's favorite's sport!

The quietness of the bridge in the dead hours of the night shift was almost deafening... You can heard the tiniest sounds tenfold as if they were magnified. Little creaks of the ship's hull, of the metal tiles of the floor, of the ceiling... footsteps on another part of the ship that were resonating through the elevator's conduit. This was making the usually obnoxious and loud bot very nervous and fidgety, and quiet for once. He had no one to talk to and he wouldn't talk to himself... He sighed and closed his optics. No one would notice if he snooze for a bit...

Drifting into recharge slowly, the thin bot didn't noticed the little red light the suddenly started to flash on the sensor's board. Maybe if he should've paid attention, things would've turned differently... But Doom was already on its way, and there was nothing that could've been done to avoid it at this point.

oOo

_IT had drifted into space for millions of years. IT had been waiting, lurking around, looking for new preys to sate IT's terrible, unending hunger for the living. For fresh souls and flesh... IT didn't mind if said flesh and blood were inorganic in nature... IT wasn't difficult on the choice of IT's next meal. IT already has quite a collection of souls, and sparks, from living creature unfortunate enough to cross IT's way. But IT's latest meal had been so long ago... IT was craving, hungering for a fresh meal. IT was searching the space around IT's lair for a new prey._

_And IT found it. IT found it in the form of a little ship coming IT's way. IT boosted with gleeful joy at the idea of a meal. IT sent one of IT'S newly acquired minion, a ship that IT captured many, many millenia ago. It was his bait... And it was going to bring to him those fresh, delicious preys! More souls to consume... _

_IT's wait had ended._

oOo

Starscream woke up with a start when he was kicked out of his seat by a large pede and landed on his aft on the floor. The lithe seeker glared around for the source of the disturbance... Only to be met with the business end of a fusion cannon in the faceplates. He looked up slowly and saw his Leader's deep scowl. Ho slag... he was done for... Megatron hated when mechs neglected their duties and he caught his recharging on his post...

"Megatron, I can explain!..." He immediately started but he was cut short by the tyrant's deep, cold voice.

"Shut your big mouth and get on your pedes, incompetent fool! You were supposed to check the sensors! SO explain me why we never got warned of _this?"_

He lifted Starscream off the bridge's floor by his neck and almost slammed him on the bridge's large plassteel glass. And Starscream's eyes widened. There was a ship out there, almost close enough for them to jump on without using a shuttle! How could he had missed it? And why in the pit did the proximity alarm never got off? He could touch the thing by extending a servo outside the plassteel glass...

"M-Megatron, I... I can explain... It wasn't my fault! I must've have drifted into recharge unknowingly!" He said quickly, hoping the large dark grey mech would buy it. He sighed in relief when, after a warning glare of his narrowed red optics, the warlord let him fall to the floor.

"I have a new assignment for you, Starscream. I want to know everything you can gather about this ship. It looks in perfect state, and if it a drifting wreckage, we can claim it as our own perfectly legally. We are in uncharted, unclaimed space, so no one had rights on floating things around here. Finder's keeper, as they say..."

He had a gleeful smirk and a dark chuckle, putting a hand on the glass window. Behind him, Lugnut had been listening to the conversation and the big oaf looked nervous, if possible. He was staring at the 'ghost ship' through the window and his single optic was slightly narrowed. Starscream narrowed his own, it doesn't takes much to scare the big dumb bot. Blackarachnia and Blitzwing were there too, but as ever the strange femme was silent and closed, and the crazy triple-changer was currently on his cold personality and unusually calm. It was almost uncomfortable as no one was talking and the bridge was awfully silent. Only Megatron seemed pleased with their discovering and he finally took a step back from the lage window to turn to Starscream.

"Well? What are you waiting for? I gave you an order, Starscream!"

The seeker hurried to his pedes and gave Megatron a curt nod, before glaring some. he was met by a cold, calm look and the glaring match was soon over, with Megatron as the clear winner when Starscream lowed his optics first. He had a amused smirk when the seeker turned around to go sit at the sensor console. He was muttering something in his breath and Megatron lifted and optic ridge at this, very amused. It was so easy to manipulate those inferior bots... And Starscream was all but strong-willed. Pathetic...

"I want a report in a cycle, Starscream! You better have something interesting for me!" He looked at the ship outside the window again and added. "I believe this ship has much to offer us... Very much..."

oOo

_It was time to lay his first hand. They were unaware, blissfully ignorant of their incoming doom. IT had met creatures like them before, so IT had sent them to prepare IT's arrival. And now all IT have to do is wait and let them loose their minds... Before feasting on their souls. _

_oOo_

Starscream had been working for twenty minutes now, and he could hear Blitzwing and Lugnut speak in the background. But he was ignoring them as ever, they were always talking nonsense. Blitzwing was a crazy fool and Lugnut... The big idiot worshiped Megatron like he's Primus reincarnated! What a fool... He sighs and concentrated on his scans.

Something was very off with this ship, out there, and he was frequently shooting looks at it. For once no lights were on, and it looked too dark, too... empty. Besides... There was something else. AN aura of malignity that was shrouding this floating piece of scrap like a living thing. It was making the atmosphere suffocating, and making him fidgety and nervous.

"That's slag... It's only a floating wreckage... There's nothing malicious with it!" He said to himself in an attempt to calm his nerves. "Just forget it and focus!"

He resumed his task, going through the database to find out what that ship was, if they had any records of it. And he did found out something... very interesting. He quickly downloaded the file and called out through his internal comm link.

'Megatron, I have your datas. You can join me in the command center."

The replys came quickly of course, and the tyrant's voice sounded slightly... different. It made Starscream wince some but he said nothing more.

"I'm on my way."

Fifteen minutes later, they were all gathered in the command center and Starscream gave his report about what he found out about the ship both by the scans and into the databanks. there was a lot of very interesting things indeed. And Starscream had already told it all to Megatron in private, a few minutes ago. The tyrant, oddly, didn't seemed surprised by his revelations... Like he already knew what he was about to say.

"Ok, first of all, that ship don't have an energy signature of a recognizable type. It do emit a signature, but nothing I ever saw before. It's very odd... It had Cybertronian markings on the hull, I could make up the name of the ship. It's an ancient cybertronian ship, from the Great War."

"What iz the name of that ship? If it's Cybertronian, maybe ve had heard of it before." Blitzwing said in a cold voice, his cold personality was on, at the moment, which Starscream was glad for. "That energy signature... Does it remind jou of anything at all?" He added and Starscream had to admit it was a good question.

Starscream, for good measure, glared at the triple changer for interrupting him and he resumed his speech. Blackarachia seemed interested for once and she was looking at him quite intensely. He sent her a glare too and she smirked. He didn't liked that creepy techno-organic freak... She was so weird.

"Unfortunately, no, it doesn't reminds me of anything. I never see it before. I already told you. And as for the ship's name, it's the Primus's Hand. A large exploration ship that had for mission to explore the galaxy in search for new energon sources. They were on a 6 Vorns mission and almost back home when they went missing. The ship and his crew was never heard of before."

He paused looking at them all. They seemed a little shocked, everyone had heard of this ship, it was an infamous story. A lot of rumors had spread after the ship went missing and many were dark and less then happy. It implied death and destruction, and even some unknown and unseen forces of nature. None were ever proved of course as the ship was never found... Until now apparently. He was right outside and floating apparently quietly in the depths of space. And something was off with it. He couldn't tell what but it was there... Whatever it was.

"The Primus's Hand? Wasn't it an Autobot ship?" Blackarachnia asked and looked through the window.

She had been an Autobot before and she had heard of this ship. It wasn't a good story with a happy ending... In the academy she had taken a course about the Great Wars and there was a section about famous missing or destroyed ships. And this one had been mentioned. A distress signal had been sent before the ship went definitely missing, but the rescue crew sent to the coordinates found nothing, not even wreckages that would indicate a destruction. They searched for a few days but there was nothing to find. They returned to Cybertron with the bad news and the story was transformed into a Ghost Ship story by the rumors.

SHe was wrenched out of her thoughts by Starscream's answer.

"Yes, it's and Autobot exploration's ship from the Great War. But I suppose you should know, you were an Autobot after all." he snickered and she hissed at him. Megatron glared at them bith and they settled. "Anyway, that ship had been declared missing 3 million years ago by the Autobot Council. ANd now we found it..."

Megatron looked through the window at the ship and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. That ship was something more then it appears. He was a little doubtfull about his own will to loot it now. Maybe it wasn't worth the risks... He frowned and crossed his arms, growling some. He hadn't been surprised when Starscream told him this because... Well, something weird happened to him right before he called him...

oOo

Half an hour earlier, Megatron's quarters

Megatron was sipping an energon and going through some files, he was very interested by this ship and he was making researches of his own. He didn't noticed it right away but the temperature of the room slowly but steadily dropped, until he had a shiver and then noticed the frost on his outer plating and the walls, even the desk. He had been so focused... he hadn't noticed anything.

He turned around, feeling a presence with him in the room. he was expecting to see one of his men but in fact the room was empty despite the cold. He narrowed his optics and walked to the wall to check the enviromental controls. They were still set to his favorite temperature and humidity and he frowned. He was still examining it when he felt a light touch on his right shoulder. He spinned around again and looked around.

Nothing.

"Whoever is pulling that stupid prank off, show yourself! I'll be merciful!"

He was starting to get nervous now, and he balled his fists. Whoever was behind this was going to get scrapped to a pile of spare parts! He didn't liked being played with. And he started searching his quarters for any proof of someone hiding there, but there was no one around. he was still alone in the room... While he was looking at a ventilation shaft on the ceiling he could swear he saw bright, red optics staring at him. Orange-red lights like two small flames... It was not looking like usual optic light.

He stared for a moment, until it vanished, but the cold in the room didn't f go away. On the contrary, it seemed to increase again and there was ice growing on the walls and the ceiling and around the vent shafts. And...

..._Meeegaaatrooon..._

He spined on his heels, he was sure he heard a faint, barely audible voice behind him, almost in his audio. He saw a movement from the corner of his optic but when he tried to focus on it it was gone again. Another light touch, on his chest this time.

_...Meeeegaaatrooon... Cooomeee wiiith uuus... Cooome... We aaaawaaaits..._

"Show yourself! The joke's over! I'm not amused!" He shouted and spinned around again. There were more movements from the corner of his optics, but never could he make out something tangible. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

More whispers, but he couldn't make out words this time, all around him. Megatron wouldn't admit it but he was getting afraid. This was grating on his nerves a lot! And it was frightening... Very disturbing... He was a warrior, he wasn't afraid of ghosts! If such things really existed... But how could he explained this any other way?...

..._Coooome to uuus... The Priiimuus's Haaand... COooome to the ship... Weee aaawaaaits... _

There was a roar then, a screech like anything else he ever heard. and a violent wind blew through his quarters, creating a hurricane and making everything flew. It lasted maybe 30 nanoclicks and then it stopped, and it was like nothing ever happened. He blinked and looked at his tidy and warm quarters. No ice, no hurricane, and no disorder at all.

Nothing was out of place.

He almost jumped out of his plating when he personal comm link went off and he answered after a few nanoklicks. It was Starscream and he had news about the ship. He left his quarters after a last look and went to the meeting with his SIC.

oOo

Present time...

"I want a team ready in 10 breems to go into that ship! Starscream, you will lead them! I will stay on the Nemesis with Blackarachnia! It's an order!"

The tyrant's look was hard and unwavering. He had to find out about this ship and the mystery surrounding it. If there was really ghosts in there... Well, they'll find out soon enough! ANd besides... They wanted him there? He'll have to disappoint them! He felt Starscream's intense look on him and glared at him.

"What are you waiting for? You have your orders! Obey them, Starscream!"

The seeker nodded and said, sharply.

"Very well, ho fearless leader! Lugnut, Blitzwing, with me! We're going to explore this ship!"

But something was telling him that it was a very bad idea... very very bad.

_-TBC-_


	3. Chapter 2: From the darkness

_Chapter 2: From the darkness..._

Twenty minutes later...

The first thing that Starscream noticed when they stepped into the deserted ship was the cold. Deep, piercing, it was making him shiver and penetrated to his very core. The walls, ceiling and floors were all covered in a fine layer of frosty ice. Behind him, he felt Blitzwing stop and heard his light sight, sign that he, too, was a little worried and confused about all this. Lugnut didn't let anything of what he was feeling show on his attitude and his features were as unreadable as ever...

"Ok, let's do this! We have one cycle! Then we come back to the Nemesis!" The SIC finally said breaking the spell that was on them. "Let's find the bridge..."

Slowly they started walking through a dark hallway, only lighted by red security lamps. It was casting long shadows on the floor, the walls and the ceiling and Starscream could swear that he saw some of those move... He shook his head and rebooted his optics, must have been a optical illusion, or a glitch. After a few hundred meters they reached an intersection and the main hallway, larger and darker, was crossing the smaller one they had been walking through since their arrival here. Starscream looked right and left, and then forwards towartds the direction they had already been following. He stayed silent for a oment and then said.

"Ok, we will split so we can cover more ground! Blitzwing, you contiue ahaed, Lugnut,m to the left, I will take the right! Stay linked to me through the comm. links! I want a report every five breems."

The two other bots shared a look and the triple changer frowned some. Since they had came across that ship, and ever since, he had been in his cold persona, the one Starscream sees as the dominant, and this was a little odd. Usually he would switch from personalities depending on his mood... But the cold one had stayed dominant for more than 5 hours now. He spoke in a controlle, calm tune.

"Are jou sure it iz a good idea? If ve get lost, or vone of us iz in dire danger, the others vill be too far to help." He tilted his head, his red optic shining a little strangely when a shadows crossed his face, hiding it appart for the optic. "Ze vise solution vill be to stay together, even if it means more time spent here."

Starscream narrowed his optics, he was right of course, they would be safer if they stayed grouped, but he wanted to be out of here as soon as possible. And if they didn't split, exploring the ship would take cycles... He replied sharply.

"Point taken, Blitzwing, but my orders remains. We are to split and stay in contact with each other via comlink at all times! I understands how you feel..." He looked around, catching some more movements from the corners of his optics, and added. "This place is giving me the creeps too. That is why I want to be done as soon as possible. But if anything happens..." He gulped, that sounded almost like a curde... "If anything happens, we can be there in five breems top."

Blitzwing looked down for a moment, and his optics focused on a spot behind Starscream for a second as if seeing something, but he looked back at the seeker quickly. He nodded and sighed. It wasn't for his liking, apparently, but he'll comply. This place had a very bad aura...

"Alright, Commander! As you command!"

Starscream had a sharp nod for him and his optics moved to Lugnut. The big oaf was standing silently behind Blitzwing and seemed to be lost in his thoughts. His red optic was slightly dimmed. Starscream snapped his digits in front of his face to catch his attention.

"HEY! Cybertron to Lugnut! I gave you an order!"

Lugnut blinked a few times before looking at Starscream and replied sharply.

"Understood Sir."

Starscream narrowed his optics and shrugged it all, the mech had always been weird.

"Good. Now go! COntact in five breems!"

Starscream took to the right, Lugnut to the left and Blitzwing continues on the way thy were already following. And silence soon shrouded then all, apart from the bip-bip-bip of the active comlink every five clicks. None of them saw a shadow, particularly deep and dense, seems to take more density, more shape, and two others, at each side of it, took for at the intersection. after a moment three sets of red flammes lighted where the things 'heads' would be and a cold, terrifying hiss came from where their mouth should've been...

oOo

_It had begun..._

_IT was watvching the three invaders closely. IT was ready to deal with them. But a part of IT was focussed on the two still on the other ship. The female one was interesting... A combination of organic and mechanic parts. But the other one... The darkness of that spark was drawing IT closer to this one. _

_It could taste it._

_Feel it._

_And IT would be a real treat to devour!_

oOo

Starscream had reached another intersection and he stopped. Great, just great... Which way now? There was a panel on the wall, with Cybertronian writings on it. Old Cybertronian... But he could read it.

_Section 6-D to 6-G →_

← _Elevator_

↑ _Engineering, secondary Bridge_

Haaaa, this was interesting! Maybe he could find some interesting things on that secondary Bridge, and the engineering was a place to go visit too. He was about to call the others when he heard hurried footsteps and a whisper behind him. He spinned around and waved his flashlight around to see what was there. He saw nothing, but heard another faint whispers and something that sounded a lot like sparkling laugh, light and almost indiscernible.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" He shouted, hearing more hurried, light footsteps, like those of a sparkling.

He frowned. Was there any survivors in here? It was impossible... How did they'll have survived without exterior support for 300 thousand Vorns? It was crazy... He saw a slight movement from a nearby door and casted his light there quickly, just in time to see a small leg disappear, running into the room. What the hell?...

"Hey! HEY YOU! Little one! I saw you! Come here, I won't hurt you!" He said hurriedly and ran towards where he saw the small thing disappear. He felt like the cold was more intense here... The door was half opened and behind all he could see were deep, very deep darkness. Like the void itself was awaiting him behind that door... A blow of cold air washed over him from the slight opening and he shivered. He should go back and forget this... But he heard something new. A sound that made his metal skin crawl and his frame tense in dread.

Someone was signing a sparkling lullaby in a very low tune, a tiny, clear sparkling voice...

He took a step back from that door, now it seemed like a terrible mistake to ever put a single pede in that accursed ship. That innocent doorframe, and the slight crack in it, were looking like the mouth to the Inferno, and Starscream was no fool. He turned around, wanting nothing more than to flee this place as soon as possible, and frag Megatron and his orders to the pit, but stopped dead in his track.

Behind him was standing a sparkling.

Probably not more then 2 or 3 Vorns old, and not ever as high as his knee joint. The little one was standing there, not smiling, not moving, not even looking _alive _for Primus's sake. And he was just staring at him with red optics. Optic that were shining like living flames. Starscream was frozen on the pot, enthralled by those hypnotizing optics. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, could just stare back, fear gripping his spark.

Suddenly, the sparkling opened his mouth, wider, wider, impossibly wide, and... The most painfully lound, dreadfully terrifying screeching sound came out of it, finally wrenching Starscream out of his trance.

And Starscream ran, ran on the opposite direction as fast as he could, and opened his comm. link in a panic.

"Blitzwing! Lugnut! Reports back to the main Intersection ASAP! We are LEAVING! NOW!"

From his commlink, all he got was more of those horrid screech and he wrenched it away from his audio, throwing it on the wall, his spark beating like mad. He ran and ran and ran but he wasn't reaching the intersection yet. He was running straight ahead and wasn't reaching anything! Like that damn hallways was going on and on and on forever! After a while he stoppe, trying to cool his overheating systems down, and looked around. Nothing... Only that darkness, more closed doors and the endless hallway in front of him.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HEEEEERE!"

No one answered...

oOo

Blitzwing knew from the start that it was a bad idea.

The triple changer had been walking for at least ten breems and hadn't found any other intersection yet. He was about to turn back when finally he reached the end of the hallway. He looked down at the dark, empty space where an elevator probably was but now it was crashed on the bottom of the conduit apparently. He could see it if he casted his light downward.

Well, dead end.

Blitzwing turned back and was about to walk back the way he came when he heard faint whispers from down the empty shaft. Like someone talking a few decks below him. Prudently he walked closer and held on the elevator's frame to try and listen better. A few decks below he could see light coming from another hallway. He was intrigued now and he leaned a bit lower, holding tight on the frame.

The whisperes seemed to get louder and closer, and he called down the shaft.

"Iz there anybody here? Show yourzelf!"

For a split second the whipers seemed to stop but then, they resumed, and Blitzwing could see a shadow casted on the back wall of the conduit from the lighted hallway. He frowned and then spotted the emergency ladder on the wall next to the door. He pondered it for a moment. Should he go down and see what was there, or should he just turn back and walk back from where he came?...

He didn't had time to ponder much longer because a loud crashing sound resonated from behind him and he spines around... Only to freeze in horror, his face briefly switched to it's crazy self at the impossibility of what he was seeing.

A large mass of shadow, as wide and high as the hallway, was coming towards him at a tremendous speed! He could discern movements on that mass... And what looks like optics, but only briefly. He managed to push his crazy self back and return to his cold self. He needed his head to think now... And fast! The crashing and crunching sounds were coming very close and very quickly, and he heard another sound coming from that mass... Screams. Pained, tortured and terrified screams. Like the screams of the Damned from the pits...

"Ho my Primus..."

He jumped and grabbed the ladder just as the mass crashed through the elevator's door and into the wall only a inch from where his head had been a moment earlier. The mass of writting shadows then started to go downwards, towards him, and he didn't thought further, sliding down the ladder until he reached the hallway he spotted earlier and jumped inside just in time to avoid being crunched to death. Now the entire elevator's shaft was filled with this... mass... he would never dare to try and return from where he came.

He had to find another way...

He stood and looked at the hallway opening in front of him, only to stare in awe. The pace was... lively and lighted like a functional ship. He could see mech and femmes walking and some laugher, and a sparkling cry from a nearby room. Turning around, there was no writing mass of shadows anymore. Only a blank elevator door. He frowned deeply, feeling his crazy self threaten to take control again, and had to fight not to let him. If they were to survive he had to stay in control...

He started slowly walking down that hallway, feeling out of place. Everything in here looked archaic, before the Great War's design. No one was paying attention to him, until he saw a femme standing in the middle of the hallway and she was staring right at him. ANd smilling sensually... He felt his core temperature rise a few degrees and when she had a wink and a slight movement to invite him to follow her, he looked around to be sure he was the one she was making those gestures for. He didn't even thought to use his commlink to call the others...

He followed her, enthralled, almost against his own will. His logical mind was screaming for him to run, to run as far and as fast as he could, but he couldn't resist... It was like he was possessed by an outside force making him do as it pleased. Lowering his optics he saw pieces of light blue armor on the floor, and he gulped, follwing the trail towards a door. The femme, naked and beautiful, was laying on the doorframe and looking at him invitingly.

_...Come... Come to me..._

He fought against himself, feeling that this was all wrong, this was going to end very badly. But he took the last step forward and the femme wrapped her thin arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss. He almost gagged... The feeling was cold as ice and disgusting! He culdn't help but kiss back, his mind screaming at him to stop.

And he should've listen... When she pulled back he screamed and scrambled backward, she had no face anymore! Only a black hole with two twin red flames in the middle, and a cold hiss left that oval of darkness. Blitzwing fell on his aft and screamed again.

"BY PRIMUS! GET AWAY FROM ME VITCH!"

He ran.

He ran as fast as he could, the ship now as empty and dark as it had been when they got in. The lively hallway had vanished and returned to it's frightening, cold self... Appart from the horrifying screech filling the air! It was coming from behind him, where he left the femme. But soon it was all around him, filling his audio and making his spark beat so fast he thought it would jump out of his chest. He tried his commlink, but only more screech came from it.

They should've NEVER come here!

But it was too late...

They had awoken an evil as old and great as Unicron Himself!

oOo

Lugnut was going mad.

There was no other explanations!

He had started to heard that voice in his head only a few while after they encountered that ship and it had not left him until then. It was whispering things to him... He had always been a little... weird, that was true, even Megatron couldn't stand him sometimes, but now... He was going downright crazy. He just knew it... Why would he be hearing voices otherwise? ANd it had worsens since they came into that ship...

He had followed the right hallway almost mechanically, and after a while, he found a angle that was going left. The voice told him to go this way. He tried not to obey, but his pedes did without his conscious decision. This hallway was o different then the previous one, except that it was colder... And a large door was at the end. As he walked closer, the large bot could reed what was written on the door in Old Cybertronian.

_INGENEERING_

He frowned. Why would that... whoever it was that as talking to him, would want him to go to the Engineering? He was no engineer... He had skills, basics, but nothing more. When he walked close enough the door opened on its own and he saw a dark, wide room behind the double doors. sounds were coming from there, humming and hissing sounds of machines working and... something else.

SOmething darker and more frightening.

A deep, loud thumping sound, like a heart, but that was resonating through the walls, the ceiling, the floor, and through him. And with every pulse a dark red light bathed the room from somewhere in the middle of the large room. Lugnut wanted to run away, and never come back here. He tried to do just that but his own servos wont obey his will, and he continued his journey towards the heart of the ship... And the evilness that he had been feeling ever since they went across that floating wreckage.

This wasn't good... He wanted to flew, he was no cowards but this... was far worst then anything they ever encountered. Even Megatron's wrath seemed like a gentle caress in comparison. This was pure Evil with no boundaries and no restrictions. This was of the scale of Unicron Himself... And even Megatron shouldn't mess with something like that.

"Please, let me go..." He whispered and heard a cold, dark laugher in his head in reply. He whimpered and was forced to walk further, closer to the source. He didn't wanted to see... To know... It would destroy his mind! "Please, have mercy!'

It was fruitless, of course. Such a creature didn't know the meaning of mercy. It only laughed more and Lugnut closed his single optic, his spark freezing.

..._You are so easy to manipulate, lesser being... _

Lugnut whimpered again at the loud voice the filled both his audio and his mind. He didn't dare online his optic. He had forgotten about the commlink, and anyway, he wouldn't been permitted to use it. He felt something... huge, dark, and as cold as the depth of space towering over him. He kept his optic shut, and for some reason, the _thing _left him that last once of free will. Maybe it was amusing IT. That was what it felt like...

..._So fragile... So pathetically weak... You mind and body are so easy to break, lesser being!..._

Lugnut didn't knew if he was expected to answer, nor did he knew the reason that creature chose him amongst all the crew, but he lowered his head and answered in a terrified voice.

"If we are so weak and pathetic, let us go, whoever you are... We are nothing to you!"

He couldn't even recognize the terrified whisper that was his voice now. He felt something brush his side and jumped instinctively, the feeling was disgusting! Wet, cold and the smell... Like a thousand decaying corpses! He shrunk and tried to move away, but he couldn't. Soon four of those appendages were wrapped around his limbs and holding him firmly in place. Struggling now would be in vain... But the creature seemed to think amusing to give him back his motor functions for now.

Lugnut did trash wildly and keened in fear. He kept his optic closed and refused to open them. Seeing this thing would make him mad for sure... The creature talked again.

_...Your mind, your body are mine... But you are not the one I want. You will be the vessel of his downfall though... _

A cold thing stuck in his head then and another over his spark, and suddenly there is nothing else then pain. Pain! Like his spark his wrenched in two and his mind peeled like an onion. He felt naked, exposed and in pure agony. In the middle of the wave of darkness, he heard the voice one last time.

_...You should be honored, lesser creature..._

-TBC-


	4. Chapter 3: mangled

_Chapter 3: Mangled_

Meanwhile, the Nemesis

After Starscream and his crew had gone to explore the mystery ship, Megatron settled in the Command Center to wait for news. They were supposed to contact him every fifteen breems, and the warlord was... nervous. After the incident in his quarters he had been a little fidgetty but he had managed to hide it well. He was Megatron, the SLag-Maker! No one and nothing scares him! But still... he had a bad feeling, something creeping on the back of his processor. And he hated it... Not being in control was worst then anything for him.

He heard a faint sigh and shot a look at BlackArachnia, seeing the femme bent on her console and looking very concentrated. She was watching the comm and sensors until the exploration crew comes back. She seemed as cold and uninterested as ever but this could very well be a facade. The tyrant knew her well enough to know when she was putting up an act.

Like right now.

"BlackArachnia." He called her casually and the femme jumped only slightly, as if she had been deep in thoughts.

"My lord?" She sounded a slight bit nervous even if that wasn't showing on her features or the way she was holding herself.

Megatron smiled at her coldly and she had a little gulp. She never liked to be alone with the large decepticon. He could overpower her easily. But she usually manage to keep as far away from him as possible, and the others mechs too. The Decepticons soldiers were all but friendly, and they weren't gentlemechs. She always has to defend herself agaisnt harassment and taunting. ANd this situation wasn't helping the fact that she could feel... Something strange, like optics on her, mapping her frame. Not Megatron, something else... ANd the Decepticon Femme didn't liked it one bit.

"Can you pick up the exploration team on the scanners? They were due to call two breems earlier." He ordered and gave her a stern look.

The lithe techno-organic femme sighed and nodded slowly, turning back to the console she had been working on. She started to type some commands and tried to locate the energy signatures of the team. For some times there was nothing, then she did got a blip on the sensors. But they were faint and barely noticeable. Megatron had stood up and walked to her, so now he was standing right behind her and looking at the screen from above her shoulder. She said nothing but tensed and let out a little hiss.

SHe didn't had time to say anything anyway because, all of a sudden, all of the comm channels came online at the same time and released that horrible screeching noise on the bridge, and probably the entire ship. Megatron's and BlackArachnia's hands flew to their audio to cover them, and they paled. The warlord gritted his dentas and took a step backward. The sound was deafening! And laced with it, there were... screams. Wails of excruciating pain and anguish. Even the cold and ruthless Decepticon Warlord, and Megatron felt like tearing his own audio off if that doesn't stop soon.

FOr the lithe Decepticon femme it was even worst. He audio receptors were finer and more sensiti ve the most Cybertronians because of her techno-organic status and she felt like her head would explode. She screamed and fell to her knees, her optics flashing wildly, overloading with the rush of inputs. On her part she could hear every single voice in that chilling, unnatural screeching, and there were femme, mechs and sparklings melted, all screaming in pain and despair, and torment! It was like listening to an open portal right through the pits!

They were thousands! Undred of thousands!

Suddenly, it stopped as suddenly as it began and both robots stayed frozen where they were for a long moment. Megatron blinked a few times, his optics locked on the image of the mysterious, dark ship out of the viewscreen, and he frowned deeply. He knew this was the source of all this... But he would not be scared off by some ghosts! He was Megatron! He would not back away in fear! He snarled and growled deeply, balling his fists.

He wasn't going to back off! Never!

For a long moment, BlackArachnia just stayed kneeling where she was, shocked, and a small trail of energon blood was seeping from her abused audios. She felt ill all of a sudden and she stood, using the console to steady herself. She tried to push the sickness away but it only rose until she couldn't hold it anymore and she bent over the console to throw up on the recycling bin next to it. After a moment, she was kneeling there again and throwing up more and more.

After a few minutes, Megatron thought that something was not normal at all... She couldn't have had that much in her tanks could she? She was looking pained beyond words and it was... Megatron's hand slowly lifted to his mouth, he was feeling slightly sick by the sight of it... It was now looking like she was literally throwing up her innards, and there was nothing he could do to help her. She threw him a pleading, desperate look, and bent over again to throw something thicker, like bits and parts of inner circuitry and organs. Megatron took a step back, he couldn't help it...

"BlackArachnia?..." He asked in a slightly broken voice. "BlackArachnia, control yourself!"

But the femme was trying just that for the last few minutes, but she couldn't help it! SHe was being gutted alive through her own damn mouth like... SHe couldn't describe it, and it was too painful for her to think! SHe was going to offline... She knew it! SHe couldn't survive this! ALready the world was becoming dark around her and she was slipping into unconsciousness, but she was forced to throw up more and more, until she screamed at the top of her vocaliser and finally collapsed in a puddle of her own innards and energon blood.

Megatron had taken another step back when she had let out that spark-wrenching scream and collapsed. She was already taking the grey coloring of death... But it wasn't over apparently. From the corner of his optics, he caught a movement and turned this way quickly... Only to freeze in shock.

A sparkling? A little sparkling of 2-3 Vorns old of age was standing in the corner, looking at the collapse body of the poor femme. Megatron blinked again and growled something through his breath. What in the Pit was happening here? The sparling's optics left BlackArachnia's body to turn to look at Megatron nd he had a little smile, a laugh, crystalline and clear, and then he turned away and bolted running down the hallway out of the Bridge.

"Hey you! Come back here!" Megatron shouted and bolted after him, leaving the cold and grayish shell of the deceased femme behind him, There was nothing he could do for her anyway... "Kid! Come back!"

He ran down the hallway outside the Bridge and, as he was running, the lights started to go off on his path, until he was in the complete dark. The only light was coming from his optics. He stopped and felt a coldness, like a freezing wind, rush down the hallway and blow all around him with a hollow, slightly disturbing howl. He stops and looks around, trying to spot something through the darkness. It was impossible... Usually he could see in the dark but... This darkness didn't seemed natural.

He jumped.

Something had touched him! Something cold and slightly wet... There were hurried footsteps all around him, and there were whispers, some angry and raging others quiet and shy and many more terrified and pained. But all seemed to be pleading, asking for something... Or maybe trying to attract him somewhere. Megatron gritted his dentas and kept walking down the hallway, using to walls to guide himself. Sometimes his digits would bump on something wet and cold, and downright gross... He just grits his dentas and keeps moving.

Finally Megatron reaches another hallway where the lights are still on, and the transition to total darkness to normal light is abrupt. There hadn't be the gradual lighting process, no, it was more like he walked out of a puddle of black oil to see the light in full. He bliks a few times and rub his optics. Megatron looks around to see where he is, and he could tell he's close to his own quarters. He's about to take off on the direction when he feels something touch his back and shoulder from inside the darkness that still drowned the hallway he just went through.

"Frag!" He jump out of reach and look back, then paled some. "What the Pit...?"

There were... limbs sticking out of that wall of pith black like a living thing marking the end of that hallway. Scarred, torn and rotten limbs, like dead claws trying to grip him and pull him back in this... thing. Megatron back off some, fear, REAL fear this time, gripping his spark. He clech he dentas hard, almost grinding them, and he turns back to run to his own chambers, leaving the screaming hallway with its inhabitants behind. He almost tear the door out of its hinges when he arrives and bolt through the frame then slam it close on his back. Only then he lay on the panel and take his breath back.

The Mighty Megatron, Leader of the Decepticons and future ruler of Cybertron and the Universe is scarred out of his wits. And he's shaking against the panel of his own door like a sparkling afraid of the monster under his berth. It annoys him yet he can't do anything to help it at the moment... At least there's no one to see him. He rub his faceplates with slightly shaking hands and then stand up straight and walk to a cabinet on the wall, open it, and takes a high grade's cube. He gulp it down in one go. He's almost done when, through the transparent sides of the cube covering his vision for now he see something that makes him stutters and almost choke.

He let the cube fall from his trembling hand and it shatters on the ground, then he open his mouth the scream... but the darkness swallow him before a sound can get out of his vocal processor.

A moment later the room's empty and silent again.

oOo

The Bridge...

The grey body of the decepticon femme laid there unmoving for some times. The bridge was now silent as a grave and in the shadows there was... slight movements. Those movements, like a pulsation in the dark corners, started to grow, making the shadowa slowly drown the entire room, until the last spot remaining was around the already cold and lifeless for of the previously beautiful Decepticon femme.

Now, after the previous... incident... she was looking more like a skiny pile of bones and metal parts. ALl her organic parts were gone, and some of the mechanical, composing her inner organs and circuitry, were gone. A force outside of her will had... forced her to expel them, painfully... Her death hadn't been peaceful at all. But...

The shadows, moving and slithering and pulsing, that were now surrounding her, soon covered her body, and there were soon disgusting cracks, creaks and ripping sounds from within the darkness. And something moved, something more tangible and bigger than the faint shadows. After a few more moments, a low hiss, both electronic and insect-like, came from the darkness, the moving and somehow... distorted form of a creature. A familiar form though... with many limbs and a lithe body.

Red optics suddenly brightened in the dark and a louder, gurgling hiss could be heard. There were shuffling, unsteady, like someone trying to walk with a broken leg or crawling on the floor and all four. Then a sound like gripped parts and broken plates shifting into a new position. There was another feral hiss and then faster and lighter steps, then the creature apparently leapt into and wall, then to the ceiling, and crawled to the airlock that was used to connect the two ships. The door was opened, wrenched from its hinges in fact, and the arachnid creature crawled in the other ship, going to a specific location...

oOo

Somewhere in the Primus's Hand...

Megatron slowly rebooted.

the first thing he felt was his aching processor, and the second... He cursed and went fully online at the feeling of the bounds on his wrists, ankles, neck and midsection. He pulled on those fruitlessly for a moment before finally having a look around... and feeling he jaw drop in utter shock.

He wasn't in the Nemesis anymore, this much was a fact, and he may not even be in the same dimension as before for all he knew. Everything looked... distorted and mismatched, and somehow ugly and disgusting. But the other thing he noticed was his men all dangling from the same sort of bounds all around the room. All except for Lugnut and BlackArachnia... ANd then he remembered.

He was in his quarters after all that madness was unleashed on the Bridge of the Nemesis, and had a well-needed cube of High-Grader when... Lugnut was there! Yes, he remembered now, but... his loyal soldier had looked so utterly and completely different... changed... that it had shocked him and made it easy for the large mech to render him unconscious. For one thing his armor... was all black. And he meant pitch black like it was absorbing the light and not reflecting any. And the other thing... was that his face was all mangled. He had... two holes instead of his optics, filled with what looked like flames, and his lower jaw was missing. The sight shocked him to the core...

Megatron tried to control his emotions, he won't let fear overcome his processor. To take his mind away from the dire situation they were in, he looked at the other mechs. Starscream looked alright, but he was still offline for now. he didn't seemed hurt. He was dangling in the same kind of techno-organic looking alcove as Megatron, and soon he started to stir. He was waking up and soon... He screeched at the top of his vocaliser when he got a eyeful of the room they were in, making Megatron's audio ring some.

"Let me gooooo! Where the frag am I?" he screeched again and struggled. "HAAAAAAAA!"

Megatron just observed him for a few moments and then snapped, very very irritated.

"Would you just SHUT THE FRAG UP Starscream! No need to try and wake the dead..."

He wasn't sure that last comment was so wise and he bit his lower lip. Blitzwing, on the third alcove, started to come by too and the mech started by look around with a startled expression. The his angry personality took over and he started trashing wildly.

"VAT IZ THE MEANING OF THIS? LET ME GO!"

If he could he would've blasted his way out of there, but he was unable to move much just like the others. Megatron watched the both of them scream and trash about for some times, feeling like he could blow their fuses himself, but he didn't had time to do anything of the sorts. Soon the room became colder, and ice started to form on every surfaces, freezing them to the core. The two others fell silent, Blitzwing's face switching back to his cold personae, and Starscream just staring at what was happening on the ground, his jaw dropping. And they had all rights to be starring in shock and fear... Because there were a lot of... what looks like bodies, or parts of bodies, some looking fresh others ancient, some were only bones moving by themselves (or empty exostructures for the mechanical ones) and other somewhere in the middle...

The stench was... indescribable.

There was hundreds of those... Maybe thousands... Agglomerating together to start forming... something else. Something that was growing quickly, filling the room until the middle of it was completely filled with... whatever it was. An amalgam of bodies meted together but with a conscience of its own... and Megatron could tell it was an ancient, evil conscience. He had seen many evils in his long life, and most had been done by himself but, sometimes, he encountered other kinds of evil, forces that were haunting the universe.

And often destroying what they came across. He felt like this thing... was one of those ancient evils that were still roaming the universe, but... worst then anything he had ever encounters before. After a few more minutes of hearing Starscream gag and Blitzwing repeats endlessly that this wasn't happening, the entity stabilized and its 'head' if you can call it that, was overlooking IT's preys like IT was about to pounce.

A pair of blood-red eyes opened, filled with raging flammes, and fixated on Megatron, making the ancient Cybertronian shudder and recoil in his bounds, struck by a sickening fear.

A booming voice filled the room, and banshee screeches ringed at the same time but the words were clear enough for them to hear.

..._Welcome... To your Nightmare... _

-TBC-


End file.
